Latest update August 30th, 2026 2:25 AM
Feb 12, 2018 Letters
Dear Editor,
Freddie, I am a reader-fan of you and I make it a duty to ready your daily expositions.
I should tell you that I get a lot of S**T from a lot of the folks I happen to engage in, to ‘gaff ‘about Guyana but that only arises when I mention your name or make references to parts of your writings. Some of those folks would loudly state that they stopped reading your stuff because ‘Freddie is anti-government’.
Of course I do not hold with them.
However Freddie, sometimes you mis-write and sometimes you are ambivalent and sometimes there is no art to what you write. Being your reader-fan I can well see you penning a query ‘give me examples and not disappear behind your remarks!’
Well I will and leave you to think deeply on my comments.
“I will never be a fan of Forbes Burnham.” … tut tut. A disingenuous start to an otherwise good article. Forbes Burnham is dead, gone, no longer around, so it is a disingenuous start to your article.
What does fan means in your context when your subsequent discourse highlighted the excellent attributes of the man , to wit, ‘But I honestly believe Mr. Burnham was philosophically, a rejectionist of capitalist or socialist or non-capitalist blueprints for democratic exercise of state power.
“He was essentially a transformational autocrat. That is definitely an oxymoron but that was what he was.
But Burnham had a personality make-up that I believe was more tolerant of people who opposed him. He had a personality style that allowed him to appreciate the positives in his detractors.”
The point Freddie is that there is no need to be a fan to appreciate good qualities!
Your opening sentence therefore was most inapt and a turn off for readers who do not like you as that sentence would cloud anything good thing you would later pen.
Now before the editor feels that I am being too verbose let me conclude with
1. I was a not a fan of Cheddie as I disliked his well-known political leanings; but I feel and am convinced that he was the most patriotic politician Guyana has had and so far no politician has come anywhere near to Cheddi’s patriotism. It was unfortunate that he was surrounded by a bunch of wealth garnishers and a foreign spouse.
2. I was not a fan of Forbes, but I feel and am convinced that he was the most astute politician Guyana has had and so far no politician has come anyway near to Forbes’ ability as a skilled articulate diplomatic politician. It was unfortunate that age caught up too early with him, causing him to be somewhat autocratic and finding it trying to be suffering too many fools
3. I am a reader-fan of Freddie and wish that he would take up the gauntlet and become an employee of the Government of Guyana, perhaps I daresay, in the diplomatic field!
Carl Veecock
35 Eastwood Crescent
Markham, Ontario
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